Short Summary

Thieves stole three Renaissance masterpieces from the Ducal Palace in Urbino, Italy during the night of Wednesday and Thursday (5 and 6 February) in what experts say could be the biggest art robbery of all time.

Description

Thieves stole three Renaissance masterpieces from the Ducal Palace in Urbino, Italy during the night of Wednesday and Thursday (5 and 6 February) in what experts say could be the biggest art robbery of all time.

The robbers knew what to go for. They picked the most valuable paintings in the collection: Piero delle Francesca's "The Flagellation of Christ" and the "Madonna of Senigallia", along with Raphael's "The Mute".

Dr. Rudolfo Siviero, the head of Italy's Art Recovery Department, said the theft was on a level with the robbery of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911.

As in the case of the "Mona Lisa", recovered two years later, experts were convinced that the thieves could never sell the three paintings:
"They are so well known that no collector could possibly acquire them", said Professor Bruno Malaioli, Italy's leading art expert.